


The Shipping Forecast

by JoJo



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Cell Phones, Kid POV, M/M, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8238724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoJo/pseuds/JoJo
Summary: Steve makes a serious rookie mistake, Danny can’t forgive him, Grace is sad because they're totally her number one real life ship, and Kono and Chin are just awesome.





	

After school, Mom wasn’t there, and Danno wasn’t there. 

Instead, a tall scruffy figure in aviator sunglasses was crossing the road outside school towards her. 

Grace’s heart sank, just a little. 

“Has something ‘come up’?” She was more than a little salty. 

It was because she was tired and hungry. But also, there were messages to be read that she could only read when she was in her own bedroom at home and that she’d spent the whole of last period thinking about.

On the other hand, Grace knew she’d lucked out. The tall scruffy figure in aviator sunglasses was at least near the top of the list of those she didn’t mind unexpectedly turning up in place of either of her parents.

“I’m sorry, Gracie,” he said. And then, seeing her face and tipping the sunglasses off, “Hey, sweetie, you don’t mind me for a while, do you?”

“No,” she said, forgiving. She slipped an easy hand into his as they crossed back over the road. “I guess I don’t mind.”

She didn’t, not really. Because her Uncle Steve was a born goof, totally cool when he wasn't being annoying, and just all-around _savage_ in so many ways she couldn’t even begin to explain. He could swim underwater like a seal without using anything to breathe, and in fact (as she told certain kids at school too dumb to know what it was) he actually was a seal for real. He drove a big, roomy truck that made her feel safe but was still insane fun going around corners. He played sappy music from, like, centuries ago, and had been on a ton of really super secret missions. More than anything else, Grace suspected he was the person her dad loved absolutely the most in the whole, entire world - apart from her of course. 

The reason her Uncle Steve didn’t always merit top spot on the list was that sometimes – like today – he was still just as sweet to her, but had a cranky face. Which usually meant he’d be short on silly ideas and things to make her laugh. Her dad had explained that there were many reasons – mostly funny or ridiculous ones – why Uncle Steve might have a cranky face. But that there were a couple of other reasons that weren’t so funny. Grace didn’t know what those other reasons were, but she did know that sometimes her dad and Auntie Kono and Uncle Chin worried about Uncle Steve more than usual. Not that they’d say the w-word. Instead they’d just be cross with him and grumble. As if he was a big naughty kid who wasn’t safe out on his own. Which was pretty funny really as he was actually her dad’s boss and had medals and the best Call of Duty moves ever. Although she wasn’t supposed to know anything about that.

She expected to go out to Kamekona’s, have some shave ice, but they didn’t. Instead, Uncle Steve drove to a place much nearer school on the road to Diamond Head, and they sat on a terrace just above the beach. It was OK though because there was wifi and they had thick, icy-cold milkshakes there. Which reminded Grace of when they went back to New Jersey to see her other uncles and aunts. Her real uncles and aunts that was, although Danno had said she didn’t ought to ever say that to Uncle Steve in case it hurt his feelings. 

Grace peered at him over the table. He’d taken off the sunglasses again, and was scrolling through his phone, still with the cranky face. When Uncle Steve had that face it was hard to imagine anything or anyone hurting his feelings.

She dug into her backpack, cautious. Drew out the little cellphone in the pretend rose-gold case that StepStan had given her. The one that made her mom roll her eyes and that made Danno spit feathers. The one she was never – but never – supposed to look at when sitting round a table with people.

Uncle Steve’s eyes lifted from his screen. “You OK, Gracie?”

“I’m fine.” She froze with the phone in her hand, finger gliding againt the ‘on’ switch at the top. Uncle Steve looked at it and got a dent between his eyes that meant he was thinking, but then the cranky face was back and his eyes drifted down to his own phone.

Yessss.

There were four updates. Since the end of class. The thrill of it was like a rollercoaster. One she wasn’t really tall enough to ride on. Exciting. Secret. Like, secret mission secret. And more than a little scary. 

Grace took a picture of her milkshake. Uncle Steve never even looked up. And then she took a selfie sucking on the straws and making a silly face. Of the restaurant blackboard with its name on, too, because some of the flavors it listed were awesome. She didn’t take a picture of Uncle Steve because on some level that was both urgent but totally unclear she knew that wasn’t such a good idea.

The milkshake blackboard picture got instant likes.

She liked Lola Palakiko’s new puppy back. But not Izzy Rohan’s latest pouty face because Izzy had posted some mean, b-wordy things yesterday.

This was really a lot of fun.

“Your mom will be home in about an hour,” Uncle Steve said, and he wasn’t even really looking at her. His eyes had drifted out to the ocean, almost as if he was bored, or else thinking about boring things. “I’ll drop you home then. You all right here for now, or you want to go do something else?”

“I’m all right here, thank you,” she said, super-polite, the phone in her lap as he glanced over for her reaction. He smiled at her, because he didn’t know to be suspicious of super-polite. Uncle Steve had a really nice smile – one that had once made her dad call him a very bad man indeed, which Grace hadn’t quite understood. 

When he saw her eyes following a waitress carrying a tray stacked with little boxes of skinny fries, he ordered her some. That was how cool Uncle Steve could be.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, catching her big eyes. He smiled the nice, bad man smile again. “Your dad says not to feed you junk food just to keep you quiet but… meh, we’re good, huh?”

Cool, savage Uncle Steve.

“We’re good.” She thought for a moment. “I won’t tell him.”

“That’s my girl.”

Uncle Steve didn’t eat any skinny fries himself. He just drank one cup of black coffee, and then a Diet Coke with no ice, glugging it back too fast and making a wicked funny face when the fizz hurt his nose. After a little his cranky face came back and he had to go to the bathroom and while he was away she took a selfie of a whole fistful of skinny fries in her mouth.

Jonas B. liked it. He liked it so fast Grace felt giddy. Jonas also rated five girls, with her at the top, and although mostly Grace thought rating was really lame, it still made her happy. The rest of the girls rated below her posted pretty supermodel selfies, with their hair all nice. 

When Uncle Steve came back to the table she’d pulled out some paper and crayons from her backpack, was busy coloring-in for science homework. Her phone was still on, sitting on her knees.

“You are one great kid, you know that?” he said, sliding into his chair. 

And almost at once his attention was back on his own phone.

Grace was kind of fed up, ready for home after another ten minutes or so. They’d gotten the check and Uncle Steve had paid already. She sighed but Uncle Steve didn’t seem to notice. Then after another few minutes, his phone vibrated loudly. He jammed it to his ear at once, said, “McGarrett,” in a voice that she didn’t know so well. “Wait, wait… can you go over that again for me?” He began to get up, switching the phone to his other ear for a second, and then holding it away as he glanced at her. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m just going to take this call then I’ll drive you home, OK?”

She nodded, pleased. Watched him as he walked across the terrace towards the beach, phone jammed to his ear. He walked quick, as if everything he had to know, everything he had to do, had to be done real fast. After a moment or two, still talking, he disappeared down some steps. She could see the top of his dark head for a while as he stood still. He turned and raised his hand at her while he was still talking, and then that disappeared too.

Grace began to put her things into the backpack ready to go. Her fingers were salty and she wiped them on her shorts. She and Uncle Steve had made kind of a mess of the table. There were sloshes of Diet Coke, melted strawberry ice cream blobs from the end of her straws, and crunchy piles of sugar from the packets Uncle Steve hadn’t seemed to realize he’d been mashing.

Her phone blurped. There were two little avatars one top of the other. Two little speech bubbles! Excited, she read the messages.

No way!

Grinning, Grace turned round, pulling her backpack with her as she slipped from the table with a wave.

*

Jonas B., wandering back out of the terrace café to the car lot with Grace in tow, said his big brother would call her mom. 

“He’ll make sure it’s OK to drive you home.” 

They’d stopped by to collect her, he said, when Jonas recognized where she was from her pictures. Grace knew Jonas always spent time with his brother after school because their mom worked somewhere the other side of O’ahu. And there was no dad.

“No but my mom isn’t home, I’m with my uncle,” she said, caught between two competing desires. “I can’t just leave without telling him.” His cranky face and the call he was on came back to her. “Though... he may be all right with it. He’s pretty busy.”

Jonas’ brother, a big teen with a beard, grinned and got out from behind the wheel of his car. He wore boardshorts, a t shirt, and flip-flops. “No problemo. I’ll go find him,” he said. He seemed nice, had a thicker Australian accent than his little brother, and she liked it a lot. “I'll sort everything out with him and your mom, OK? What’s he look like?”

“Dark hair. Blue shirt. On his phone.”

“No worries.”

Grace really thought it would be OK at that point. Her mom had been on a Moms Night Out last semester with Jonas’ mom. Lola Palakiko was in the back of the car too, pink-faced from the thrill. 

“Oh my God,” Grace said, feeling her excitement level spike as she climbed in and dumped down her backpack. “Your puppy is sooooo cute!”

“Anyone mind if we take the scenic route?” Jonas’ big brother asked when he was back behind the wheel. He didn’t say anything about what Uncle Steve had said but Grace figured that meant everything was fine. He’d been in and out pretty quick. When she thought about it later she guessed she should have been worried he never came out to say goodbye.

“Did you call my mom?”

Jonas' big Aussie brother grinned at her in the rearview mirror. “We’re good to go, people.”

They passed Uncle Steve’s truck on their way out towards Diamond Head, and she felt a pang of something. But then Lola squealed at her to put on her safety belt and Grace let it go.

*

For about an hour Grace was happy.

It was actually really good fun.

They took a long, roundabout way along the coast. That it wasn’t in the direction of home didn’t really occur to her for a while, she and Lola were laughing too much in the backseat. But then they stopped at some friend of Jonas’ brother’s house who she didn’t know and didn’t seem to be anything to do with school. For some reason they had to hang around there what felt like ages. When they finally left they changed to a big, dusty car like a ranger’s instead of Jonas’ brother’s car. Jonas was squashed in the back with them and there were no safety belts and his brother’s friend, a local who might have been college age, was smoking while he drove. Her phone had run out of charge within a few minutes of leaving the milkshake place so she couldn’t call any of the numbers she had in her contacts. And then Lola and Jonas said they didn’t have signal anyhow.

“Could you call my mom again?” she dared ask Jonas’ big brother but he said he didn’t have signal either. She knew then, with a sinking feeling that was nothing like the one she’d had earlier, that she was probably officially in trouble now. And that her mom and dad would be super, super mad.

“Can we go back now?” Lola asked, looking at her face. Jonas was prattling on to them about Moshi Monsters, carefree, as if he was used to doing this kind of thing after school.

The big kids just ignored them.

They drove way past anywhere Grace knew out at Diamond Head, ended up down a long, long dirt track road in a little wooded place where Jonas’ brother and his friend started smoking stuff that smelled weird and playing music from the car. It was like they had a secret camp out here and Lola and Grace thought that was maybe quite cool. Jonas sucked on the end of his brother’s cigarette, blew smoke out and coughed, asked if the girls wanted to try it. And then Lola burst into tears and the bigger kids seemed to be really angry for just a second. Before they began giggling.

From time to time it was OK, the big kids said they’d go back soon because they were getting hungry, and she and Lola messed around in the rocks and trees, played a mash-up game of ninjas and cheerleaders together because Jonas was hanging around with the bigger kids and not them. But every time they went to ask to go home it didn’t work and Grace felt guilty and a little scared.

It had been completely dark for some time when they were finally driving back towards Honalulu and somewhere on the way there were flashing police cars coming towards them from the other direction and Grace didn’t know whether to be happy or terrified.

There was Uncle Chin looking really serious in one of the cars with Lola’s mom. There was Uncle Steve’s truck, too, and there was her dad’s car with Danno and her mom in it. And as soon as she saw their faces when they got out Grace knew she’d been right to be a little scared and a lot guilty. 

Her dad began bellowing like a crazy man, so crazy that Uncle Chin had to hold him back because it looked as if he was about to punch Jonas’ brother in the face. Screaming at him to ask if he’d dared – if he’d f-word _dared_ to let the kids smoke anything and because Jonas was being silly and had been kind of sick down his t-shirt it didn’t make it any better when Jonas' brother, face white as a ghost, swore he hadn’t. And then her mom was shout-crying at her about how could she just go off without telling anyone and that they’d been so worried and it had been _five whole hours_ and they’d thought… and then she was crying and making Grace cry too.

And she saw Uncle Steve trying to come towards her and her dad wouldn’t let him. He just pushed him backwards with two hands, real hard so he nearly staggered. 

“Danno, I just want to-“ Uncle Steve began, his face all weird almost as if he was scared.

“I don’t care what you want!” her dad raged back at him. “Just get the hell out of my fucking face, McGarrett! You’ve done enough.”

And Uncle Chin was saying, “Hey, come on, Danny. Take it easy,” but her dad just flung his hands in the air and came back to her and her mom. 

“We’re going home,” he said, and picked Grace up and pressed her right against his shoulder, which felt so good and nice that she nearly cried again. Because it felt good and nice, but also because Uncle Steve was left behind with that scared look on his face.

But actually the worst thing… the worst thing of all was that at some point on the quiet way home her dad took a call on his phone and his voice was gruff and not saying much. In a way she didn’t like at all. 

When the call was done Grace said to her dad, “Is Uncle Steve OK?” and he looked at her in the mirror of his car as if he’d just been stung by a wasp, with his eyes madder and more hurting than she had ever, ever seen and he just said, “I’m not talking about Uncle Steve right now. You don’t even _have_ an Uncle Steve.”

Grace cried a lot then. Not just because she knew she’d been really bad and she didn’t like seeing her parents so upset. But because she thought maybe Uncle Steve had been killed by some bad men.

“No, sweetheart,” her mom said when she was finally in her bed, all bathed and soothed and fed. “No, it’s just that Daddy’s really, really cross with him for leaving you alone like that. And I am as well. We’re a bit cross with you, too, but not so much as we are with Uncle Steve. You were his responsibility. And we were very scared.”

There was something Grace wanted to say about that. About how Uncle Steve had been cranky and must have been scared too. But she wasn’t sure if it would count for much right now.

Everything seemed better in the morning. Mom and Dad (who’d stayed all night, even though StepStan was there) loved her as much as ever and she felt fine, too, even though the phone had been taken away. She couldn’t believe that her dad could ever really stay that mad with someone he loved as much as he loved Uncle Steve. And who, she knew, loved him back just as much.

*

But it turned out he could.

“Anything could have happened, baby,” he said. 

It was a few days’ later, because they didn’t talk about it for a while as he was just too furious. And even then he couldn’t quite keep calm. 

“Things could have gone incredibly bad with that idiot stoner, you know? He was driving in the dark out of his head for crying out loud! Or it could have been someone else – someone older or sicker in the head you didn’t know at all – that found you because of that picture. You know about satellites, right? And about not sharing where you are on the internet because…. “ And then he’d looked all stung by a wasp and raging again and she just wanted to cuddle him.

She could tell he’d flipped out with Uncle Steve bigtime because he couldn’t even say the words. 

*

She didn’t see Uncle Steve for about three weeks after it happened. There were no cookouts or little visits. Her mom said she thought they were very busy at her dad’s work so that was probably why, but Grace didn’t think she believed that. The only times she didn’t get to see Uncle Steve for weeks and weeks was when he was off on some super secret mission, and they only ever told her that was where he’d been when he got back. And then sometimes she couldn’t see him for a while after because he was a little bit hurt and needed to rest.

Grace worried.

Maybe that’s what it was. Maybe Uncle Steve had gone on a mission because Danno was mad at him and maybe he hadn’t come back this time or maybe he had come back and he was a little bit hurt and needed to rest. In which case she wanted to draw him a picture or bake him cupcakes.

In the end she asked Auntie Kono.

They were at Kamekona’s shrimp truck on a Friday, at their usual table. It would have been just like it always was except that Uncle Steve wasn’t there.

“Busy, munchkin,” Danno said in explanation when she asked.

But when there was a lot of laughing and drinking beers she and Auntie Kono got up and went for a little walk.

“I miss Uncle Steve,” Grace said. “Why is he always busy?”

Auntie Kono put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her into her side. “Oh, sweetie.”

Grace screwed up all her courage. “Is he somewhere dangerous? Is he hurt? Is he dead?”

Auntie Kono stopped in her tracks. Her arm slid away, she dropped to her haunches and her mouth was an ‘o’.

“No, Gracie, no!” she said. “Oh my… no, Uncle Steve is _none_ of those things. He’s just not here because…”

“Because my dad’s still raging?”

Auntie Kono made a face as if she was thinking real hard about what she ought to say.

“Yeah, well your dad _is_ pretty mad.”

“I asked him not to be.” Grace was becoming ticked off with it all now. “I mean, I know it was my fault with the phone and going off without saying but I got in trouble for it and I understand and now it’s OK again. Why isn’t it OK now with Uncle Steve?”

“Maybe…” Grace couldn’t tell if Auntie Kono was on her side, or her dad’s side, or if she was a little on her dad’s side and a little on Uncle Steve’s, or if she just didn’t know what anymore. “It’s different. You’re ten years old. You have stuff to learn. Your dad maybe thinks Uncle Steve should have known better. Should have done his job better.”

“Everybody has a bad day.” Grace wondered if it was time to mention the cranky face, but she wasn’t sure she knew how to explain it to Auntie Kono either.

Auntie Kono laughed, as if she had a teary lump in her throat.

“They sure do, sweetie. But you know, when you’ve got someone’s safety and well-being in your hands, and you’re a grown-up with a really important job, sometimes you just can’t use that as an excuse.” She paused, made a little ‘do you see?’ face. “And your mom and dad were real scared for a while there, because you're so precious to them. That kind of scared can take a little time to get past.” 

“My mom has.” 

“She has?”

Grace nodded, emphatic. “She told me I was, you know, little in the mall and she let go my hand for just a second and I got lost. And she gets that it happens sometimes and you just have to learn the lesson. And Uncle Steve doesn’t have kids so maybe he just didn’t think.”

“Yeah.” Kono straightened up slowly, took hold of Grace’s hand like she was suddenly scared herself. They started walking back towards the others. “Only, trouble is, Uncle Steve really ought to have thunk. And he kinda went AWOL for longer than a second.”

Grace felt tears pricking. 

Uncle Steve had really messed up. She was getting that now. It was his job to keep everyone safe at work and if he didn’t do it then he might get kicked out of his job by the Governor. And now he’d messed up in his other job. His Uncle Steve job. So maybe he’d gotten kicked out of that – and her dad had done the kicking.

“I wish I could see him,” she said, voice so tiny Auntie Kono could hardly hear. “I wish Daddy loved him again.”

Auntie Kono didn’t answer right away, as if she was taken by surprise. 

“We all do, Gracie,” she said in the end, “but you should give your dad a break, too. Sometimes it’s hard – when you’ve had a big scare or you trusted someone so much to do the right thing and they broke that trust.” She paused. “Does your dad know how you feel?”

“Kind of.”

Grace was cagey. She'd figured she couldn’t tell Danno he and Uncle Steve were, like, her number one real life ship. More even than Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. Before they broke up.

Kono squeezed her hand. 

“Well listen,” she said. “It’s Uncle Chin’s birthday on Saturday, you know? And he’s decided to throw a little party at his house, get everyone together. And you guys will be there we hope. And Uncle Steve’s invited too, of course.”

“And he said he’s coming?”

Auntie Kono sucked in a short little breath. “Well… he said he might have to go to the mainland for something, but he’ll try.”

“What if he doesn’t try? You know, for reasons.”

“Are you kidding?” Auntie Kono almost couldn’t hide that she wasn’t at all sure of what she was saying. “You know how your Uncle Steve is with birthdays, right? And besides, Uncle Chin and I won’t let him go off to some boring thing on the mainland. We’ll change his mind. Promise.”

It sounded hopeful.

Only Grace was suspicious because one of her dad's many, many sayings was that there was no mule anywhere in the known universe that could outstubborn McGarrett on a bad day.

*

At first it seemed as if it wouldn’t work out.

Grace heard her mom and dad talk-arguing. And she was saying, “Danny, just tell him to come, he’s making excuses and you mustn’t let him!” and her dad was irritated and said it was McGarrett’s stupid choice and then her mom said, “God, you are so infuriating!” 

Seriously, parents could be hard to get along with sometimes.

Her mom and Stan weren’t going to the party although they’d bought a gift for Uncle Chin. They’d also said, because of the whole phone thing, she couldn’t have any new party shoes so she had to wear her old ones which were really kind of lame and made her look as if she was, like, five. 

When her dad came to collect her on the day her mom gave her the gift and whispered, as if she didn’t want her dad to hear, “I think he’ll be there.”

Then Grace was worried that when her dad saw Uncle Steve they might start yelling at each other instead of making up. She had a bad feeling – just from things she’d heard and the way all the grown-ups were getting cross with each other over this – that they might have yelled at each other a little at work. Or even a lot. 

But actually Uncle Steve seemed mostly OK. Although... he looked like her dad did when he hadn’t been to bed in a few days, as if he was about to get sick. But he was as goofy as he ever was around a birthday cake, and he and her dad laughed at the same time at some of the same jokes. Danno didn’t stop him from giving her a big hug hello. They even clinked their beer bottles together when everybody else was doing it. 

They didn’t talk to each other, though. And that sucked. Even worse was that if Uncle Steve didn’t think anyone was watching him he had this really weird look on his face. Not cranky. Not sad. Not even haven’t been to bed and about to get sick. Just a serious, strange, ‘I’m not Uncle Steve anymore’ kind of face that Grace hadn’t ever seen before.

She didn’t like it.

It frightened her.

And then when she was full of cake and soda and feeling as if her stomach was upset, Uncle Steve’s phone pinged really loudly and he took the call and walked out of Uncle Chin’s house, down the steps and away down the road.

Grace saw Auntie Kono and Uncle Chin look after him as if they were thinking uh-oh he’s cranky. And then Danno looked after him, too. Frowny rather than raging. As if he didn’t like one single thing in his head right now. And his lip curled up in the cross-with-himself way he got sometimes.

It wasn’t a work call, else Uncle Steve would have come back and her dad and the others would have gone away to do their stuff. Maybe it was his sister, or another friend.

Or maybe.

Maybe the Navy people were calling him away on a secret mission and he was going to just leave suddenly without even coming back to say goodbye and he’d be killed this time and he’d never know Danno loved him so very much and her Danno would be sad forever and ever, and if she’d never been a complete fail and sent that stupid picture it might never have happened.

Grace took a big, swooping breath.

She found herself across the room, face planted against Danno’s warm shirtfront.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” she sobbed, holding him so tight he couldn’t move at first.

“Whoah,” her dad said, trying to untangle her. “Whoah, whoah! Hey, monkey face! Too many E-numbers, huh?”

And she was so mad with him at that – so mad – that she balled up her fists and thumped him on the back. Real hard.

Which made him drop right on to his knees with a loud ‘ooof!’, so his face was in front of hers, all scrunched and frightened.

But she was crying too much to say any words.

“Danny,” she heard Auntie Kono say way above her. “Danny, hey. I think Gracie’s worried. I think maybe she thinks that...” And Grace couldn’t see properly through her snot and tears but thought Auntie Kono was pointing out the window.

And somewhere along the line Danno said, “Damn that idiot pain-in-my-ass,” but he didn't sound as if he meant it at all.

He kissed her head and cuddled her and then he seemed to go away really quickly as if he was in a hurry and it was Kono cuddling her and Danno had left. And when Grace managed to dry her eyes they went over to the window and Auntie Kono cracked the blind for just a second so she could see Danno walking fast down the hill to where Uncle Steve was standing with his head dropped as if he was looking at the ground.

“Come sit on the couch, Gracie,” Uncle Chin suggested. He was always kind and sweet at exactly the right moment. “I’m going to need some help opening my birthday presents, and something tells me that's one of your skill-sets.”

Although Grace’s stomach was still kind of gross and sicky, she did have a good time doing that. She and Uncle Chin sat on one couch and Auntie Kono and some other people sat or stood around the other one. It was always fun when people loved their birthday presents. 

And when she’d gotten sleepy she just closed her eyes.

*

When Grace woke up, she didn’t feel as if she had an upset stomach anymore.

She felt snuggly and still sleepy and was lying with her head on a comfy pillow on Uncle Chin’s couch with a really soft blanket over her and she wasn’t wearing her party shoes. It was dark in the room and smelled of cake, but it seemed as if the party was over, or at least, as if it had moved outside. There were voices coming from Uncle Chin’s garden, and the sound of music.

When she blinked sleep out of her eyes, and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, she saw her dad sitting on the other couch. He put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. There were lots of bottles of beer on a little table next to his elbow, and Uncle Steve was on the couch, too. Actually, he was lying all along the couch with his big boots hanging off the end, and his head on her dad’s lap. 

And he was fast asleep. Like, seriously, crashed out fast asleep.

Danno had one hand curled across the very top of Uncle Steve’s dark head. His other hand was on his own stomach and Uncle Steve’s scratchy cheek was resting on her dad’s fingers as if they were a little pillow.

Grace opened her mouth to say something. Because it was so funny and so adorable. Her heart went all squeezy, and she really wanted more than anything to have her phone so she could take a picture of them.

But her dad patted his lips with his finger again.

Grace felt more comfy and sleepy than ever. And she must have gone right back to sleep again because when she woke up she was at her dad’s house and it was morning.

*

When she padded along to see what was going on, Uncle Steve was in the kitchen on his own. As if he’d just arrived, or as if he hadn’t gone home in the first place but had just stood there all night.

He was leaning with his back against the sink drinking more coffee and he hadn’t shaved and still looked as if he was getting sick. But he smiled the biggest nicest bad man smile when he saw her and reached for a packet of Cheerios.

“Your dad’s on a grocery run,” he said. “So I’m going to fix your breakfast. That OK?”

Grace yawned. “OK.”

“Hey, you’ll love it. Your mom made sure your dad got in English muffins and marmalade. I think he had to send to London for them. And actually I think it was James Bond who made the delivery.”

She snorted.

And he seemed to like that.

When she was sitting at the table with a bowl of Cheerios inside her, a cup of milky tea and two halves of a toasted muffin all runny with butter and marmalade on a plate, Uncle Steve poured himself more coffee – Grace knew he was drinking way too much coffee – and then he sat in the chair opposite.

“I’m sorry you were upset and worried,” he said, and his face looked as if he didn’t really want to be saying what he was saying, or that he didn’t really know how to.

“That’s OK.”

She took a big bite of muffin and marmalade and chewed, the familiar zing of orange against the roof of her mouth. “I’m sorry Danno was so mad with you,” she said through the mouthful. “I’m sorry I went off without telling you.” The muffin wouldn’t go down very well all of a sudden. “I thought Jonas’ brother had talked to you. He said –“

“I know, sweetheart. I know what he said. And that he couldn’t find me, or maybe he didn’t even try, or I don’t know what. But none of that matters. What really matters is that I should never have left you alone at the table like that. And not even once, but twice. I was stupid and thoughtless and your dad was totally right to be mad with me. He trusted me with the most important thing in his life, and I messed up. Let you both down.”

Grace finally got the mouthful of muffin down, hating the hating-himself look in his eyes. She didn’t pick up the next piece of muffin. 

Uncle Steve’s face was stiff as if he was trying not to move it.

“So I just wanted to say – that I learned a really hard lesson and that I hope you can forgive me, like your dad has, because I want you to know that from now on I will do my very best, always, not to let anything bad happen to you. And that I hope you feel like you can trust me again.”

“Nothing bad did happen to me,” Grace said, and it almost seemed as if Uncle Steve hiccupped.

“No,” he said, flicking one hand, quick as a blink, across his eyes. “But I know you’re smart enough to realize that’s not really the point.”

She frowned at him. “Of course I forgive you,” she said. “And in any case I was never the one who was mad.”

His head dipped a little then and he laughed, shaky. “OK,” he said. And he held up his big hand towards her, palm out. She balled her fist, arm level with her shoulder, punched his palm hard, right in the middle with a satisfying smack, following through. Just like he’d taught her. 

And that was another way Uncle Steve was a cool bad man. Because it was their secret seal thing he’d suggested she didn’t tell her dad. And it was way less lame than high-fiving.

They hadn’t cleared a single thing away and they were playing Mancala on the kitchen table when her dad arrived home with the groceries.

“Morning, beautiful,” he said, kissing the top of her head as he passed behind her chair. He dumped the grocery bags and looked at the table, made a sarcastic ‘nice job’ face at the mess.

“So,” he said, leaning against the sink just like Uncle Steve had earlier, and crossing his arms. “We all good here?”

“We’re good,” Uncle Steve said in a quiet, croaky voice.

“Good,” Danno said, and Grace could tell from the way he was looking at Uncle Steve that he meant it and that everything was all right. Or _probably_ all right, because her dad said you always had to keep an eye out for things going wrong even when they were all right. Actually, he hadn’t said ‘going wrong’, he’d said ‘down the crapper’ and then clapped a hand over his mouth.

“I’m going to have more coffee,” Uncle Steve said, “and then Gracie and I’re going to go shoot some hoops or go swimming, whatever.”

“No you’re not.” Her dad sounded very firm, and Grace felt a little somersault of panic and Uncle Steve’s face went all still again. “You, you big putz, are not going to have anymore coffee. You’ve been mainlining the stuff for three weeks now. Who knew it would be your drug of choice, huh? No, you are going to go back to bed and get some sleep. Hoops and swimming and hiking and whatever the hell else you want to do can wait until later. I’m not spending Sunday petting your dopey head because you got sick through being a jackass. Is that clear?”

Uncle Steve cut his eyes towards Grace. “Help me out here,” he said. “I need some advice.”

“You say ‘yes, Danno’ and go do as you’re told,” she said sweetly.

Uncle Steve barked a laugh.

He scraped his chair back, gave her a little salute. “Copy that.”

As he passed her dad on the way out of the kitchen, he leaned in with a bad man smile and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. And her dad laughed and swatted him on the butt.

“Get outa here,” he said, catching at his fingers as he went by.

“Love you, Danno,” Uncle Steve said.

And Grace could have just about died from the cute.

 

-the end-


End file.
